Calvary Launches Restoration of Sacred Torah

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The hospital is now home to the Westminster Memorial Scroll No. 515.

On Nov. 11, Calvary Hospital officially launched the restoration of a historic Torah scroll — technically a Holocaust survivor — at a kick-off event at the 92nd Street Y.

Scroll No. 515, from the town of Taus-Domazlice, is on permanent loan to Calvary from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London. The scroll is housed at the Hospital’s Bronx campus. The goal is to repair this Torah — which dates back to 1880 — so that it will once again be available for use in services and Jewish rituals.

Rabbi Moshe Druin from Sofer On Site captivated the audience with his comprehensive presentation about the restoration process and what this project will entail. In nearly three decades, Sofer On Site has helped repair hundreds of Torah Scrolls throughout the world.

Among the dozens of attendees at Calvary’s kick-off event at the 92nd Street Y were:

Anne Cote Taylor and Jim O’Hara (members of both the Hospital and Calvary Fund boards)

Five Jewish Veterans who served in World War II or during the Vietnam era.

“From the Hospital’s earliest years, Calvary has always welcomed patients from all religions,” said Frank A. Calamari, president & CEO of Calvary Hospital. “We are dedicated to providing the best end-of-life care that a person can find. At Calvary, we also honor and celebrate the spiritual and faith traditions that are so important to our patients, families and staff. We are honored that the Memorial Scrolls Trust has loaned us this sacred Torah. We know that it is our responsibility to safeguard and repair it. We have no doubt that we will be able to enlist support for this worthy project from people of all faiths.”

Calvary also presented the sacred Torah to Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan at a private reception at St. Joseph’s Seminary. The Hospital educated seminarians and the deaconate about the importance of this project to people of all faith.

The Hospital’s outreach to the Jewish community, and the Torah Restoration, has been spearheaded by Dr. Michael J. Brescia, executive medical director. Once the Hospital raises enough funds to pay for this restoration, any remaining funds will be used to benefit all patients and families at Calvary’s inpatient facilities in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Home Hospice patients throughout the greater New York area, and at The Dawn Greene Hospice in Manhattan located at Mary Manning Walsh Home. Calvary is grateful to the Charles R. and Winifred R. Weber Foundation for their early, generous support of the Torah Restoration project. To support this important initiative, please visit: http://www.calvaryhospital.org/torahrestoration

The Memorial Scrolls Trust
During World War II, the Nazis confiscated all the Jewish ritual items and sacred Torah Scrolls from the Jewish communities of Bohemia and Moravia in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. This collection of Jewish cultural and religious artifacts bears witness to the horrors of the Holocaust.

In 1964, the Westminster Synagogue in London, England, agreed to receive 1,564 Torah Scrolls from Prague. They established the Memorial Scrolls Trust to restore the scrolls and distribute them to communities throughout the world. Torahs are currently on permanent loan to more than 1,400 congregations throughout the world, an estimated 1,000 in the U.S. alone. To learn more about the Trust, please visit: http://www.memorialscrollstrust.org

Jewish Patients & Families
Three Rabbis care for hundreds of Jewish inpatients and home hospice patients at Calvary each year. In addition to kosher food upon request, Jewish inpatients and their families can expect a daily visit from a Rabbi, food from an expanded Kosher Hospitality Room, dedicated Shabbos Lounge, Kabbalat Shabbat service, and celebrations of all major holidays.

Yeshiva University Collaboration
Since 2012, Calvary has partnered with Yeshiva University to educate people in the Orthodox Jewish community about how to access excellent end-of-life in accordance with Jewish law (halakha). The goal of this partnership is to provide observant Jews with the information they need to make the right end-of-life care decisions for their families.
To learn more about the YU program or to submit questions, go to http://yu.edu/riets/end-of-life-care and click on the button called “Rabbinic Consultation Form.” To learn more about Calvary, go to: http://www.calvaryhospital.org and click on the first bullet listed under the “What’s New” section.

About the Company:
For more than a century, Calvary Hospital has been the nation’s only fully-accredited acute care specialty hospital devote exclusively to providing palliative care to adult patients with advanced cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. More than 5,800 patients are cared for annually by Calvary’s inpatient, outpatient, home care, hospice, and wound care services. Inpatient car is offered at our 200-bed facility in the Bronx and our 25-bed Brooklyn Satellite at Lutheran Medical Center. Calvary Hospice provides short-term inpatient care at The Dawn Greene Hospice, located at Mary Manning Walsh Home in Manhattan. To learn more or sign up for the e-newsletter, Calvary Life, please go to http://www.calvaryhospital.org.